Israel’s focus turns to Khan Younis as it hunts for Hamas leaders

Gaza’s second biggest urban concentration is now being depicted as Hamas’s ‘centre of gravity’

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At the start of Israel’s now more than 60-day offensive in Gaza, its focus was on the north of the territory: Hamas’s leader in Gaza was portrayed as being hunkered down in a bunker disconnected from the world, while its key command centre was said at other times to be located under Dar al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, illustrated by mocked-up graphics in Israeli briefings.

Amid a rolling Israeli campaign of huge destruction, the southern city of Khan Younis, the territory’s second biggest urban concentration, is now being depicted as Hamas’s stronghold as Israeli tanks move in on an area already overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of those displaced from Gaza’s north.